Category: Kitchen

51 Tiny Tasks to Help you Feel More Organised

Does your home feel untidy, disorganised and a struggle to keep under control? Do you feel frustrated by your lack of progress? Or tell yourself you should be able to keep on top of it all!

I know if you feel disorganised or stressed out by your home, it can really affect how you feel about yourself. 

Be kind, it’s not easy to get to everything.

If you could dedicate a big chunk of time to organising and streamlining your home and habits that would be great, but not everyone has the time, energy or headspace. 

But you can regain control of your home over time by focusing on the tiny tasks.

Don’t Underestimate the Tiny Tasks

“Making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be. Success is the product of daily habits”

– James Clear, Atomic Habits.

I love this quote because it sums up the importance of the little actions we take. In the moment it’s easy to overlook or underestimate the impact they can have, but they all add up. And this applies to organising your home too.

Every tiny step you take to get organised and keep your home under control, or to anticipate and plan for your day, can have a huge cumulative impact on your life. The more you do, the more organised you’ll feel and the more you’ll want to do.

And as each task is so small you’ll be able to take action regardless of the restrictions on your time, energy and resources.

Over time, you’ll feel better organised, less overwhelmed and like you’re in control of your day.

When is the Best Time of Day for you to Take Action?

I feel more energised in the morning. So I know this is a good time to take quick action to make our home feel better organised. And it gives me a sense of achievement early in my day when I make the house feel calmer for when we return home later, or progress an organising project.

If you are interested in understanding the best time of day to take action you may like to find out about your chronotype by doing this quiz.

51 Tiny Tasks to Help you Feel More Organised

Below is a list of tasks that will help you move forward.

Make each action matter:

  • pick one task that you can fit into your day or fancy doing
  • remember to choose the optimum time of day that works for you and your energy levels 
  • try to do it mindfully – be present in the moment (feel the warm soapy water as you wash up), observe what you are doing and enjoy the process. 

Repeat if you can – if you can, choose another task to move on to. But if you don’t have time or energy, that’s ok, you’ve achieved one thing already!

Invest in these actions because the cumulative benefit will come. I promise it will make you feel great, give you a sense of achievement and help you feel that you are making the best use of the small amount of time you have available.

What will you pick from the list?

Kitchen

  1. Empty the dishwasher
  2. Wash up/load the dishwasher
  3. Tidy up and wipe around the sink
  4. Tidy jars, packets, containers into cupboards
  5. Clear and wipe counters
  6. Put a laundry load on
  7. Empty washing machine and hang up laundry
  8. Put away appliances you don’t use often
  9. Tidy a cupboard shelf, removing expired items
  10. Empty recycling and rubbish bins
  11. Put reusable shopping bags into the car/your handbag

Bedroom

  1. Make the bed
  2. Hang or fold clothes that you have worn and can get more wear out of
  3. Tidy creams and make-up so that they are easy to find again
  4. Put away items that you aren’t using today
  5. Put away any clean laundry
  6. Tidy away items that live elsewhere

Bathroom

  1. Fold/hang towels
  2. Display products used daily so they are easy to access
  3. Tidy away products you don’t use daily
  4. Restock toilet rolls
  5. Empty bins
  6. Quick clean round sinks and toilet

Hallway

  1. Tidy shoes / put away lesser used
  2. Hang coats and bags
  3. Tidy away seasonal accessories
  4. Remove items that live in other rooms
  5. Create a home for school books & PE kit bags for easy access
  6. Hang keys and dog leads

Lounge

  1. Tidy books onto bookshelves
  2. Gather magazines & recycle old copies
  3. Remove items that live in other rooms 
  4. Tidy remote controls and gaming tech back to their home
  5. Fold blankets
  6. Tidy up the sofa
  7. Stow childrens’ toys
  8. Tidy items from surfaces to their homes
  9. Vacuum round

Planning

  1. Create a meal plan for the week
  2. Look through cupboards and make a shopping list
  3. Plan out what you need for the next day
  4. Book appointments
  5. Complete forms
  6. Check your emails and schedule any follow-up tasks
  7. Recycle/shred/file any documents hanging around
  8. Plan any journeys
  9. Write any cards, address, stamp and put on the front door
  10. Book an online food shop
  11. Set-up a subscription for toilet rolls, cleaning products or other regular items
  12. Set up a direct debit for a regular bill
  13. Fill a bag with donations from around the home that you can take to a charity shop as you pass by this week

For questions to ask yourself when decluttering a room, get my free Declutter Guide download here.

Read next – Sunday Evening Organising

Reset for Autumn

As the seasons change your priorities change, so your home should too! Now that the holiday season is over, it’s time to reset for Autumn!

One minute you are digging out your summer wardrobe, having picnics in the park and looking forward to getting away from it all, the next thing, the children are back at school, everyone is back to work so days are full-on, mornings are pressured and you spend more time indoors trying to juggle everything (including hungry children, mounds of laundry and keeping up with tidying and cleaning!).

Before it all becomes too overwhelming, now is a great time to reset your home; to declutter the summer paraphernalia and organise key areas of your home so that daily life flows more easily.

In September, I shared tips with Sarah Julian at BBC Radio Nottingham and Kelly Hinch at BBC Radio Leicester. Read my reset tips below and grab my quick Checklist to reset for Autumn!

My Autumn Reset Tips

It’s time to get practical! Your home needs to work for you. Now is the time to remove the excess from your functional spaces and organise them so you can access what you need and keep things tidy with ease.

Go for impact!

Focus on the area(s) that will make a big difference to your day. You use these areas daily, your day will run smoothly if you can access everything you need easily, the state of this space can have a really positive impact on how your mood.

Complete one area before you move to another. It’s difficult to complete an area if you try to multitask (which isn’t a thing by the way – the brain can’t multitask, it just swaps between tasks which it’s not very good at doing). Work on one area, if you find things that need to live elsewhere put them to one side (or in a box) to take to other rooms once you’ve finished.

Reset your Hallway

The hallway is your launchpad. It’s the last place you spend time before you leave your home and the first space you see when you come home. When you create a welcoming and functional space that supports you it will have a big impact on the start and end of your day.

Ensure you have homes for the shoes, coats, bags, and items that you need daily. Hang as much as you can, allocate space for each item and use containers for small items such as keys, tissues, wallets, gloves, glasses etc.

Occasional wear, summer coats, and shoes you only wear every now and again should be packed away or live in wardrobes. This is not the place to leave things that aren’t helpful to your mission of leaving or entering the home smoothly each day.

Reset your Kitchen

The heart of the home, it’s also the place where paperwork, bits and bobs, toys, pet paraphernalia, bags, clothes and all manner of other clutter gravitates to.

You visit this room at least three times a day, and probably much more. You’ll likely want to prepare meals, make drinks, clean, do laundry and many other tasks as easily as possible. You spend a lot of time here. You may also eat family meals and spend time with guests, so you want it to feel inviting.

Your reset for this space will include returning items to their homes, recycling/shredding/filing paperwork, packing away picnic sets, decluttering things you no longer use,

Reset your Wardrobe

You wear clothes everyday. When you have a sea of clothes you no longer wear and seasonal items peppering your wardrobe it can make it so difficult to find what you need.

Imagine how much calmer your mornings would be if you could find what you need easily rather than having to spend time rummaging for items you know you have but can’t find.

Keep the floor-drobe at bay by making it super easy to put things away:

  • Pack up off-season clothes and remove anything no longer fits or doesn’t feel great.
  • Separate clothes into categories such as work, social and occasional items to make it easy to access those items you wear day to day.

Need help to work through your Autumn Reset?

Are you ready to do your Autumn Reset? Download my Quick Reset Checklist to tackle your kitchen, hallway or wardrobe today!

Download my Quick Reset Checklist here

Find out more about my Decluttering and Organising services 

Contact Laura to discuss your organising needs on +44 (0)7970 989955

Nine Quick Declutter Tasks to Improve Your Wellbeing

Have you ever noticed how a quick declutter feels so good?

I had the pleasure of speaking with Donna Alos on BBC Radio Derby yesterday morning. I shared some ideas to help you get started with some feel-good decluttering activities. 

I was only on for a few minutes, so you may not have heard it, but I didn’t want you to miss out.

Whether you refer to it as clutter or not, most of us have a collection of things lying about in an untidy state somewhere in our home. We have an overabundance of possessions, that can create disorder and a chaotic environment.

Have you ever been bothered by clutter?

If you’ve been frustrated at not being able to find the things you need; distracted or unable to relax because the things around you; you’ll know how it can niggle and even cause you stress. It can affect your mood, and how you feel about yourself and your home.

Recent research by my follow APDO colleague, Caroline Rogers, has found that there is an association between clutter and wellbeing. Caroline says that clutter is subjective; how much we have isn’t important, it’s how we feel about it that is.

Declutter to improve your wellbeing Cutlery Drawer example, Before and After

Taking steps to address your clutter can feel great.

You don’t have to have a huge declutter to feel the benefits. Creating order, even a little, can make you feel fantastic and like a weight has been lifted. 

Here are some examples of the small tasks to help you feel fabulous.

  1. sort out your cutlery drawer
  2. review your cook books
  3. tidy your underwear drawer
  4. sort the odd cables box
  5. review your DVD collection
  6. sort out your make-up
  7. look through the bathroom cabinet
  8. tidy up your bedside table
  9. sort through desk drawer

And if you have larger tasks to do but they feel a bit overwhelming; break them down into smaller activities; race the boiling kettle; work in 25 minute chunks; sort a drawer, box or shelf at a time; or make a list of the tasks that need to be done and complete the first one. 

Do a little each day and it will soon add up, I promise!

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